Facebook buys Vidpresso’s team and tech to make video interactive

Zombie-like passive comsumption of static video is both unhealthy for viewers and undifferentiated for the tech giants that power it. That’s set Facebook on a mission to make video interactive, full of conversation with broadcasters and fellow viewers. It’s racing against Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Snapchat to become where people watch together and don’t feel like asocial slugs afterwards.

That’s why Facebook today told TechCrunch that it’s acquihired Vidpresso, buying its seven-person team and its technology but not the company itself. The 6-year old Utah startup works with TV broadcasters and content publishers to make their online videos more interactive with on-screen social media polling and comments, graphics, and live broadcasting integrated with Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, and more. The goal appears to be to equip independent social media creators with the same tools these traditional outlets use so they can make authentic but polished video for the Facebook platform.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it wouldn’t have taken a huge price for the deal to be a success for the startup. Vidpresso had only raised a $120,00 in seed capital from Y Combinator in 2014 plus some angel funding. By 2016, it was telling hiring prospects that it was profitable, but also that “We will not be selling the company unless some insane whatsapp like thing happened. We’re building a forever biz, not a flip.” So either Vidpresso lowered its bar for an exit or Facebook made coming aboard worth its while.

For now, Vidpresso clients and partners like KTXL, Univision, BuzzFeed, Turner Sports, Nasdaq, TED, NBC, and others will continue to be able to continue to use its services. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that customers will work with the Vidpresso team at Facebook, who are joining its offices in Menlo Park, London, and LA. That means Facebook is at least temporarily becoming a seller of enterprise video services. Whether it turns away old clients or stops integrating with competing video platforms like Twitch and YouTube remains to be seen.

“We’ve had a lot of false starts along the way . . . We finally landed on helping create high quality broadcasts back on social media, but we still haven’t realized the full vision yet. That’s why we’re joining Facebook” the Vidpresso team writes. “This gives us the best opportunity to accelerate our vision and offer a simple way for creators, publishers, and broadcasters to use social media in live video at a high quality level . . . By joining Facebook, we’ll be able to offer our tools to a much broader audience than just our A-list publishing partners. Eventually, it’ll allow us to put these tools in the hands of creators, so they can focus on their content, and have it look great, without spending lots of time or money to do so.”

Facebook already has some interactive video experiments out in the wild. It recently rolled out its Watch Party tool for letting Groups view and chat about videos together. It’s also trying new games like Lip Sync Live and a Talent Show feature where users submit videos of them singing. Facebook Live has also built tools to help publishers pull in social media content, let streamers earn tips, and for fans to subscribe to donating money to their favorite video makers like on Patreon. It’s even got an interactive video API that it’s developing to allow developers to launch their own HQ Trivia-game shows.

But the last line of Vidpresso’s announcement above explains Facebook’s intentions here, and also why it didn’t just try to build the tools itself. It doesn’t just want established news publishers and TV studios making video for its platform. It wants semi-pro creators to be able to broadcast snazzy videos with graphics, comments, and polls that can aesthetically compete with ‘big video’ but that feel more natural.

Every internet platform is wising up to the fact that web-native creators who grew up on their sites often create the most compelling content and the most fervent fan bases.

Whichever platform offers the best audience growth, creative expression tools, and monetization options will become the preferred destination for their work, and their audiences will follow. Facebook couldn’t risk another tech giant buying up Vidpresso and gaining an edge, or it wasting time trying to build interactive video technology and expertise from scratch.